We just got news about the third annual Flatpack Festival in Birmingham and it sounds sick. As a festival of the moving image it will obviously be hosting some amazing films, especially interesting to us is the Outside Art section including a few films which we've been waiting to see for awhile (ahem, Megunica's out!?). The format of the fair will be something special as well, being hosted in old warehouses, shop fronts, artspaces, and of course The Electric, the UK's oldest working cinema. Much more than a film festival it will be celebrating the moving image and all sorts of new and innovative approaches to such.

Found this jem over the weekend. It's the entire Quality of Life film on Google video. This fictional film about the San Francisco graff scene won numerous awards and has some great footage of stuff from all over the city. After seeing some really shit graff movies (here's looking at you Bomb the System) it's good to get one that doesn't go too over the top with non-believable cinema-drama story telling, although that does come in a bit at the end. This probably won't stay up for long so take about an hour and a half at some point to watch. (ps: Yes we do see the irony of posting about a film festival then a probably-pirated copy of a movie online. Enjoy both.)

"Young people have to decide, is graffiti fun or just dumb?" circa 1976. via

We just got word from our friend Mike Swaney about a nice looking two-person show at Miscelanea gallery by Oscar Lozano and Andrés Pascual entitled "Bodegas Las Vegas." These two Barcelona artists present us with their own modified realities and takes on the cities and world around them through their paintings, drawings, and sculptures. The show opens this Thursday, March 5th.

I was fortunate to meet Saner during my first trip to Mexico City about a year ago. Since then he's been working his ass off, collaborated with Sam Flores for the Marchante project, and this Friday, March 6th he opens his first solo show, "Confesiones de una Mascara" at the Anno Domini Gallery in San Jose, California. His work links his graffiti background with Mexican pre-hispanic traditions and the aesthetics of Mexican masks.

PIctoplasma is coming up soon and we want to keep you all up to date for those who can't make it to Berlin this year. The festivities will start up on March 17th and will include conferences with speakers like Saiman Chow, AJ Fosik, Boris Hoppek, James Jarvis, W+K Tokylab and a ton more, plus a symposium discussing the significance and cultural implications of the movement, a sure-to-be epic exhibition that will stay up through until May, and the Character Walk which will be a guided tour through twenty galleries and project spaces throughout Berlin. Oh my! Check out more at: www.pictoplasma.com

Anthony Lister is at it again (as always non-stop), this time with a solo show at the KGallery in Legnano, Italy. Titled "The Pain of Feeling" Lister's work will steer slightly away from his normal superheroics to study more of the female form, not a bad sounding gig. The show opens this Saturday, March 7th.

Dran is an interesting character and his work is full of other interesting characters. Gallery Nosco in London will be putting together a large group show later this year which will include plenty of work of Dran's, so in anticipation they've just sent us some great photos directly from his studio including stuffed luchador ferrets, some tourists getting robbed in front of the Eiffel Tour, my favorite (above) of Santa getting his ass kicked by Jesus, and plenty more.

Julio Rölle + Sebastian Bagge from 44Flavours will open their new show in Berlin, next thursday.
At selected store, Revalerstrasse 9.

This one might win funkiest show-name of the year (so far). "The Hairy Octaver" by the London-based illustrator Matthieu Bessudo aka McBess will open tomorrow, Saturday March 7th at Nice/Nice Exhibition Space in Hannover.

Iván Bravo worked for two long years on this mural in the Icasual restaurant in Barcelona. We admittedly dropped the ball on sharing the news about the inauguration (which happened on Thursday night), but it doesn't mean the mural is any less impressive. He's included a great amount of detail, various characters, word plays, and a perfectly simple color-scheme in this 120m2 hand-painted mural.

House of Tate #11 was just released and is available to view online. It's got tons of great work in it from John Burgerman, Phil Ashcroft, Gary Taxali, Andrew Meredith, Ronald Ceuppens, Suhee Wooh, Claudio Parantela, Cleon Peterson, TEZ, Katie Pretti & Damian King. Check out the issue here. They're also now taking submissions now for Issue #12.

We just heard from David Shillinglaw about his new upcoming solo show, "Dumbfounded" at Here Gallery in Bristol. His work has got a great feel to it and in his own words, "The work depicts all the devious devices we use to conceal and reveal our true identities as we struggle both to fit in and stand out." The show will include objects, installations, and plenty of paint and drawings covering both. Click on to feast your eyeballs on a ton of pics, especially for those who won't be able to make it to the show in person.

All pictures are drawn with non-permant marker directly on an acrylic glass plate. With a Q-Tip and window cleanser she wiped the parts of the illustrations that were not needed.

Embedded in the 3rd Pictoplasma Conference’s Character Walk 2009 I show some of my latest works in Berlin.
presque fini showroom
Brunnenstr. 53
13355 Berlin

Open March 17 – 22, 12 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Lister's recent show, "The Pain of Feeling," just opened last Saturday at the KGallery and they just released this great video of his process on the wall. Seeing his paintings in person you start to realize the variety of linework, textures, and techniques he uses and just how not-simple his paintings are. So if you're interested in how this man lays down paint he's fucking great to watch. via fecal

Merry Karnowsky Gallery has been flexing their muscle in Berlin for a whole year now and are celebrating in style with "Hard Left 2," their first anniversary group show. While the "2" in the title of their first anniversary show might seem confusing this will actually be the second time they pull together some of their favorite artists (and ours) in one hell of a group show, the first time being their grand opening. They will also be part of Pictoplasma's Character Walk, so there's no excuse for not checking out work by Aiko Nakagawa, Blue and Joy, Camille Rose Garcia, Dalek, Jim Houser, Junko Mizuno, Kill Pixie, Mark Ryden, Miss Van, Todd Schorr, Victor Castillo and plenty more.

"Alejandro Lecuna Aguerrevere" in Berlin just sent us some info about a project he's been spreading around his city and the Internet. Keine Werbung (No advertising) is a sticker project you can print out yourself in order to let the mailman know you don't want the trash he's forced to throw away in your mailbox. While the concept is something that plenty of people have been scrawling on the mailboxes for years and sign companies have made a buck on, this project finally brings some nice design and free distribution to the concept.

Timothy Hon Hung Lee is an artist and illustrator from London who's drawings are worth more than a second look. In a seemingly traditional way and using the age-old technique of chinese ink on calligraphy paper his work focuses on romance, violence, and mortality. Some sick black and white work although it seems the computer screen is hardly the place to be able to really appreciate these. Check out his website here, his blog here, and click on for more images.